1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of removing particles such as foreign matter and dust from a flexible support (hereinafter referred to merely as "a support"), and an apparatus for practicing the method (hereinafter referred to as "a dust removing apparatus").
2. Terminology
The term "support" as used herein is intended to mean a flexible belt-shaped article having a width of several centimeters to several meters, a length of more than several tens of meters, and a thickness of several micrometers to several hundreds of micrometers. The belt-shaped article is made of a plastic film of polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene-2, 6-napthalate, cellulose diacetate, cellulose triacetate, cellulose acetate propionate, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, polycarbonate, polyimide or polyamide. Alternatively, the belt-shaped article is paper coated or laminated with .alpha.-polyolefin such as polyethylene, polypropylene or ethylene butane copolymer or is a metal foil of aluminum, copper or tin. The flexible belt-shaped product includes one on which a preliminary manufactured layer is formed.
The support is coated with a coating solution such as a photo-sensitive coating solution, a magnetic coating solution, a surface-protecting coating solution, a charging-preventing coating solution, or a smoothing coating solution, depending on its purpose of use. After the coating solution thus applied has been dried, the support is cut into pieces having a predetermined length and width. Typical examples of the product are photographic films, photographic papers, and magnetic tapes.
However, this terminology is by way of example only and is not intended to limit the invention.